the year of magical thinking

I’ve decided to start posting about the books I read. I read a lot, and I read a fairly wide variety of books. I love talking about books and I love getting recommendations for what to read next, so feel free to join in the conversation in the comments below. 

much love, friends.

– e xx

I read much of The Year of Magical Thinking on the train. I did a lot of my reading on the train last semester. Filled with work and uni, my weeks were busy; the train is my time out. My deep-breath space. My no-obligations, can’t do anything about that right now wild card. My reading nook.

Usually I could get a seat, although for the 7.29 limited express via the city loop on Tuesdays and the ‘sometime during the peak hour’ Wednesday evening train I’m standing up all the way. I don’t mind, so long as I can face forward.

Sometimes I would close the book and stare out the window and the greenery rushing by and try not to sob, the heart-wrenching words of Joan Didion kicking me in the guts. Trains aren’t great for reading books like this. I don’t want to be around people when I’m reading something like this.

mother’s day ricotta cheesecake

Cheesecake is the common denominator.

This year was the first year in years that both of my grandmothers have spent Mother’s Day with our family. My dad’s mum is usually treated to lunch in the city by her daughter; we usually hang out with Mum’s mum, who lives less than an hour away. That is, if Oma (Mum’s mum, Dutch, world traveller) isn’t jet setting off across Australia, visiting her other children and grandchildren.

blueberry muffins

I feel like the title of this post is misleading. It’s so tame. Blueberry muffins – everyone has them, right? Every bakery has tried blueberry muffins, they’re a staple at most baked good outlets. You can get them at your local supermarket in myriad forms and brands.

These muffins are not like those muffins.

pear chocolate almond scones

 

 

I really love scones. They’re quick, they’re easy, they’re versatile and they’re absolutely delicious.

Stephanie Alexander’s sister once told her that when she heard the sound of a visitor at the gate, she should be able to get a batch of scones in the oven by the time they were at the front door. I’m fairly sure I’ve mentioned that before, but I love it so much, I’m saying it again. I don’t think I’m at that stage yet, but I can definitely make you scones for breakfast when I get back from my morning run.

Scones take next to no effort, especially if you’re using a food processor. I don’t tend to these days, as I’m living at a house that doesn’t have a dishwasher. When you’re faced with three extra dishes or one to clean, always choose one.

raspberry coconut cupcakes

I feel like everyone is pregnant these days.

I’m not saying that this is a bad thing. I’m just saying that there seem to be a lot of little babies and baby bumps around the place. Facebook, Instagram, twitter – social media is going nuts with the baby photos and pregnancy updates.

Maybe it’s just that I had one friend who was pregnant, and then I started noticing every other pregnant person in my stratosphere. Maybe it’s that I’m at an age where all my friends are pregnant. (Not really. Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself that I’m only twenty-one, and that while this age is fine for some people to be getting married and having babies, it is far from the norm and also, I’m fine the way I am.) Or, maybe it’s that with the social media saturation the culture we live in, everything is everywhere and I am just noticing pregnant people and babies. 

my jar of cookies is half full

You guys know how much I love cookies. I devoted an entire month to them last year and while you might have thought that I had then had enough, you would be wrong.

chocolate fudge cupcakes with salted caramel buttercream

Clearly, I have a problem.

No, I’m not talking about my addiction to Doctor Who t-shirts or my extreme nitpickiness when it comes to the care of books. I’m not even talking about my complete inability to ignore the inappropriate possessive apostrophe in “it’s”. People, get it right: if it is a contraction of “it is”, then it needs an apostrophe. If it is not a contraction of “it is” then it does not need an apostrophe. 

routine

I’ve been working on my fitness lately. After I ran a 14 km fun run in November last year, I let my running slip and over the holidays, even though I signed up for another race, my training got worse and worse. After this happened a couple of months ago, I took a few weeks to debrief and then began the long, slow process of running a little longer each week until I’m pushing myself, but not so much I feel like a limp noodle after a run. Well. A little like a limp noodle, maybe.

A big part of fitness is the fact that it’s a slow and sometimes painful process. In part because you get blisters and your muscles are working hard and maybe you get injured, and in part because it takes so long to feel like anything is happening at all. When I was first getting back into things, I felt like I could never run ten kilometres, let alone train for a half marathon – I couldn’t remember the person I was back in November. However, little by little, things have been getting easier and I am finally finding that sweet spot, somewhere in the middle of a comfortable distance when my mind goes blissfully blank and the kilometres seem to fly by. It’s a kind of peace, a stillness in the midst of movement. It doesn’t happen for long, but I’m working on it happening more often. 

funfetti cake

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be a professional cake taster. Apart from the obvious deficiencies in this plan – cake isn’t nutritionally complete, you may get large and unhealthy – I think it would be a pretty decent way of life.

sneak peek + news

Hey guys! It’s been a while, I know, and I have a LOT of stuff to tell you about. I’m working on revamping the site, there have been a bunch of recipes I’ve been trying out and I can’t wait to tell you all about them.

For now, though, the big news is that I have a new domain name! This site, I don’t know if you’d noticed, is now happily at home at cutthecookie.com. We have a .com domain! This is very exciting news. I feel like it’s a proper website now, and I hope to be able to treat it like one. I’ll be updating more regularly and expanding a little on the content side of things.

Happy Sunday! Have a cup of coffee for me.

Much love, friends.

-e xx